The Making of an American Icon
Founder Antonio Pasin (1897–1990) in front of a statue commemorating Radio Flyer’s Coaster Boy exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.
Everyone has a story about their Radio Flyer—the time you took it to the moon, or raced in the Indy 500, or explored the Wild West. The story likely includes someone important: your father, your sister, your neighbor, your pet. It’s the story of your childhood.
But the story behind Radio Flyer—the past hundred years that tell a tale of a family, a company, and a country—is just as captivating and memorable. It’s the story of the making of an American classic. That’s why when First Lady Michelle Obama needed a gift for young Prince George of England, she bought a little red wagon. Or when former secretary of state Colin Powell needed a symbol for his philanthropic endeavor America’s Promise, he used a little red wagon. And when Bob Dylan needed the perfect image of nostalgic love for a song, he wrote about the little red wagon. So how is it that a product as simple as a stamped-steel wagon, with four wheels, a handle, and some red paint, became a symbol of America? The answer is in the pages of this book.
Radio Flyer was founded in 1917 by Antonio Pasin, a young Italian immigrant living in the slums of Chicago. The company he created would go on to sell more than a hundred million wagons, and grow into one of the most successful family-owned businesses and beloved brands of all time. It’s hard to imagine a 1950s suburban house without a little red wagon on the lawn. One advertisement from 1973 deemed the Radio Flyer the “only wagon that outsells Ford station wagons.” In Radio Flyer: 100 Years of America’s Little Red Wagon, we will go back to the very beginning: to Italy at the cusp of the World War I, to the buzzing center of Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, through the austerities of the Great Depression and manufacturing during World War II, and on to today, as Radio Flyer faces shiny new competition, retail consolidation, and changing technology. Customers’ stories and pictures are shared throughout.
Ultimately, Radio Flyer’s story is America’s story. With this book, readers and fans will learn for the first time not only about the brand they (and their grandparents) love, but about also our country and the opportunity it gave to enterprising immigrants, and how family ties are strong enough to build something that can last for more than a century. It will resonate with anyone who’s been on a wild ride and made one of the most important discoveries: it’s the unexpected journey, not the gloried destination, that is the best part.